User blog:Akriloth2160/Changeable stats on the wiki
Since, earlier this month, varelabro1 saw fit to replace a large chunk of my video list page that I saw fit to remove, I feel the need to finally get this off my chest and explain why I saw fit to remove said chunk. To clarify, this refers to the part of the list that catalogues likes, dislikes and views. And if you're familiar with the concept of static media, you're probably figuring out the problem with doing this instantly. See, I'm a frequent user of TV Tropes, and one Administrivia trope I tend to push for in a lot of my edits is "Examples Are Not Recent", a trope built around the notion that wiki pages are static, while time itself is not. And with statistics that change on their own such as video views and ratings, the only way to stay on top of keeping them updated is to manually update them. And trust me, if it hasn't happened already, that's going to stop consistently happening at some point. The stats are going to go out of date on a constant basis, no matter how often you trumpet, "As of such-and-such date". More to the point, what is ultimately the point of including these stats? Like, showing the actual videos and some minor trivia in the notes column, I can absolutely understand. I can even understand including something like the runtime. But the notes column brings about another problem I have with showing these stats in tables like this. I don't know if this is the case with every other commentator's video list pages, but it definitely is the case with mine - the notes column along with information people would actually be interested in gets nudged off to the side in favour of the by-nature outdated video stats columns. And yes, it is possible to scroll the table to the side, but not only does that not always work without scrolling right to the bottom of the table, but will people immediately notice it? Highly unlikely. Basically, unless if there's a way to hard-code the real-time statistics into a wikia page (and I highly doubt there is), I'll be calling the inclusion of the video stats themselves on the wikia page what it is - too much commitment to keep something pointless and aesthetically inconvenient. And I extend that criticism to the user infoboxes as well. Even if you say the date at which the stats were recorded, that's still not going to stop it going out of date eventually. I may not be able to change the inclusion of the stats in the infoboxes, but I sure as hell will on my video list. And for the reasons I have given, I would recommend others do the same. Because let's be honest, when have people come to those pages for the video stats? Especially when you can get more up-to-date versions of those same stats just by...get this...clicking on the video! That seems a whole lot better than having the info right there for those whose attention spans would embarrass the Bro Army, and ending up shunting off to the side some trivia that isn't always as easily conveyed on the video page itself, such as who the avatar is, who makes a cameo in the video, etc. I mean, the upper part of my video list that documents the commentaries mirrored from my old channel seems to be doing fine without these stats, so I'm fairly sure the other part can stand to lose them as well. I'd better wrap it up here before I start rambling on about nothing, but the gist of it is, can we all just come together and agree that attempting to keep tabs on the statistics of a channel on this very wiki rather than letting the stats themselves speak for themselves on their actual source is a fruitless endeavour? It certainly seems that way on my end. Category:Blog posts